Baking for Dummies

by Emily Nolan

  Pie weights

  When you prebake an empty pie shell, sometimes you’ll need to weigh down the crust with pie weights to prevent it from bubbling up. Pie weights are available at any kitchen supply store and are usually ceramic or metal round pellets. To use them, pour them onto an unbaked, foil-lined piecrust and then place the crust in the oven, as shown in Figure 3-17. About 5 to 10 minutes before the crust has finished baking, remove the weights by lifting out the foil and return the crust to the oven to finish browning.

  Figure 3-16: A pastry brush.

  Figure 3-17: Using pie weights when baking an empty piecrust.

  If you don’t have pie weights, you can use dried beans instead. Follow the same directions as for the pie weights. Keep the beans in a special jar — you can reuse them many times. Unfortunately, after you’ve used beans in place of pie weights, the beans can no longer be cooked — they will have dried out too much.

  Sieve (strainer)

  A sieve is great for sifting flour, dusting cakes with confectioners’ sugar, or straining liquids from solids. A sieve generally has a bowl-shaped bottom made of fine mesh and a long handle. You also can mash soft fruits through the mesh to make a puree, which is especially good for removing all the seeds from a raspberry puree.

  Spatulas

  Two kinds of spatulas are important in baking: rubber and metal. A rubber spatula (shown in Figure 3-18) is great for scraping down the sides of bowls during mixing, getting all the batter into pans, and folding together ingredients. Choose a spatula with a flexible, but stiff, blade. The stiffness in the blade gives you more scraping control. Don’t expose your rubber spatula to heat, because most will melt or crack.

  Figure 3-18: Rubber spatulas are great for scraping every bit of batter from a mixing bowl.

  A metal spatula (see Figure 3-19) has blunt edges and a rounded tip and is the perfect tool for spreading frostings and fillings. These are available in a wide range of sizes, but for finished cakes, you may want to have a 10-inch blade so that you can sweep across the entire top of the cake for a smooth finish. Make sure that the blade fits snugly in the handle and that the handle is comfortable to hold.

  Figure 3-19: Metal spatulas are especially useful for spreading frostings.

  Timer

  A timer is an inexpensive item that can save you money in the long run by reminding you when to take your baked creations out of the oven, therefore preventing wasted batches.

  Always set your timer for the minimum amount of time given in a recipe, and check for doneness. You can always leave your goodies in the oven for a few more minutes — just don’t forget to reset the timer!

  Tongs

  Think of tongs as an extension of your hands. Tongs are great for retrieving foods from hot water, flipping cooking foods, and lifting hot lids.

  Trivets

  A trivet can be made of wood, cork, or ceramic. It’s usually round or square and is placed underneath the bottom of a hot pot or pan to prevent it from burning the surface it’s placed on. Trivets also protect glass and ceramic baking dishes from the sudden shock of cold surfaces, which can cause them to break.

  Vegetable peeler

  There’s nothing like a comfortable vegetable peeler for removing the skins of fruits and vegetables. A vegetable peeler also makes great chocolate curls. Look for a stainless steel blade so that it won’t react with acids.

  Wire whisk

  Not a week goes by when I don’t use my wire whisk. It has many purposes: It mixes, blends, and aerates batters and ingredients. It’s essential if you want to make puddings, smooth lumpy liquids, or blend liquids into solids. If you don’t have a whisk, I recommend that you get one. Purchase a stainless steel whisk that’s comfortable to hold and use. Avoid a narrow handle because your hand might get tired holding it. And look for one that’s well manufactured so that food doesn’t get stuck in it.

  Part II

  Basic Training

  In this part . . .

  Sure, you’re familiar with terms such as beat, blend, mix, and whip, but when the recipe calls for the dough to come together or for you to blanch the almonds, hull the strawberries, or zest the lemons, you may start feeling faint and begin searching for the number to the nearest bakery. Well, put down the phone and get ready to pick up some new lingo so you can talk shop with the best of them. This part also helps you discover the role of basic ingredients so that baking in general becomes less intimidating to you.

  You know you have an oven, but do you know how it works? This section preps you for the process of baking. You can find information for getting your oven in top working order and what to look for when baking and how to combat troublesome ovens. It also gives you advice on how to read recipes, what to be on the watch for, and how not to get yourself in over your head if you’re a novice baker. I also provide tips on how to measure all kinds of things, from flour to fats. You also get information on basic techniques you’ll need to perform when you want to try the intermediate to challenging recipes. Find out about whipping egg whites and melting chocolate. This section unlocks many of the mysteries of the kitchen.

  Chapter 4

  Understanding Your Oven

  In This Chapter

  Knowing the different types of ovens

  Knowing how to position your racks

  Figuring out how to avoid hot spots in your oven

  Making sure that your oven is the right temperature

  Most people take their oven for granted — it has always been there and it always will be in the kitchen. Some people don’t think twice about their oven. They just put food in and it cooks. Others find that they’re constantly battling the demons that live inside. If you have a love-hate relationship with your oven, read on to discover how to uncover the quirks of your oven and overcome common oven issues. Even if you don’t have a worrisome oven, in this chapter I tell you how to make sure that your oven remains in tiptop working order.

  Knowing the Difference Among the Three Types of Ovens

  You can imagine how important a properly working oven is. Three different types of ovens are on the market: gas, electric, and convection ovens. Gas and electric are the most common varieties found in homes, and convection ovens are generally found in professional or top-of-the-line kitchens.

  Before conventional ovens were in homes (the first gas stove was introduced into American homes in the 1850s), the majority of cooking was done over open fires, and the baking was done in beehive-like ovens usually above or behind an open fire. Temperature was gauged by touch — how long your hand could remain in the oven. Judging when an oven was hot enough was one of a baker’s most difficult challenges. Bakers today have it easy — they even have choices. The next time you have to purchase an oven, consider the information in the following sections.

  Gas ovens

  Gas ovens generally have a constantly running pilot light, and the heat comes from a perforated bar that runs down the center or in a T shape in the bottom of the oven. This bar is usually covered by a false bottom of the oven. An advantage of this false bottom is that you can set pans of water on the bottom of the oven floor if you want to make your oven “moist” for baking bread. Another advantage to a gas oven is that it tends to be warm because of the pilot light (although many modern ovens have eliminated this constant burning pilot and replaced it with a “self-starting” pilot). If you have the older type, inside the oven is the perfect place to let bread dough rise because it’s warm and draft free.

  What’s going on in there?

  Everyone knows what an oven is, but have you ever given much thought to how your oven works? Food cooks in an oven because it’s surrounded by hot, dry air. How quickly or evenly the food cooks depends on the temperature of the oven. The way food is baked in the oven is due to conduction, or transfer, of energy (heat, in the case of baking) from the air to the batter or dough.

  The foods you bake are made up of many elements: proteins, starches, sugars, water, and fats. Heat has an effect
on all these elements, each producing a specific and necessary reaction. Slowly, the heat from the air inside the oven is transferred to and penetrates the food from the outside inward (that’s why the outside of a cake may look cooked, even though it’s still wet and gooey inside). The metal pan helps to retain the heat from the oven and acts as an insulator for the heat. Heat affects the batter in several ways:

  The proteins (eggs and gluten) begin to lose moisture, shrink, and coagulate.

  The liquid in the starches begins to become gelatinous and firms up (for example, the flour begins to absorb the liquids and becomes firm and dry).

  The sugars begin to caramelize, which is why baked goods turn golden brown. The type of sugar used affects how brown the food becomes.

  Water also evaporates, which can happen rapidly as the internal temperature of the food increases.

  Fats begin to melt.

  The air that has been incorporated into the batter — either because of beating it or because of the gases produced by the chemical leaveners — begins to expand, which gives cakes and cookies rise.

  So, basically, the food enters the oven; the surface begins to lose the moisture and firms up; and the food browns, which completes the cooking process. Pretty neat, huh?

  What happens if your oven temperature is off?

  If the temperature of your oven is too cool, the surface of a cake will dry out too quickly, leaving the middle still uncooked. When it does cook through, the cake will be too dry because it will have evaporated too much of the moisture.

  If the temperature of your oven is too hot, all the chemical reactions happen too quickly. A cake can rise unevenly, or too quickly, and the outside of the cake will be cooked and browned while the inside is still raw batter.

  Electric ovens

  Electric ovens have large, exposed coils placed in the top and bottom of the oven, so they heat from both areas (unless you broil, in which case only the top element does the heating). Because electric ovens heat from the top and bottom and gas ovens heat only from the bottom, many people claim that electric ovens supply more even heat, which results in more even cooking. Also, gas ovens will surge on and off with the heat to maintain the temperature, and electric ovens do not. I like electric ovens because you can broil items in the same space that you bake them. This is great if you want to brown the top of a cake or custard and you don’t have to worry if the pan will set into the broiler section of the gas oven area.

  Convection ovens

  Convection ovens use an internal fan to circulate the hot air, so every part of the oven is the same temperature and it can cook lots of food at one time. These ovens are almost always free-standing and have many racks. In general, convention ovens cook food faster than conventional ovens, so if you’re using one, you may have to reduce the heat called for in a standard recipe by 25 to 50 degrees or reduce the baking time by 25 percent.

  Turn on an oven 15 to 20 minutes before you plan to use it to allow time for it to heat to baking temperature.

  Rack Chat

  Although it may sound odd to you, the position of the racks within your oven affects the way your foods cook. The center of your oven is where the temperature is most moderate, giving your baked goods what I consider the best placement for even cooking. Depending on the placement of the heating elements inside your oven, you’re likely to have hot spots. In general, the lower third of your oven is hotter than the middle (because generally the source of heat is located in the bottom of the oven), and the top third of your oven is also hotter (because heat rises) than the middle but not as hot as the floor.

  If your oven heats from the top and bottom, you may find your oven to be equally hot at the top and bottom and moderate in the middle. This is why it’s important to bake items in the center of the oven. It’s where the temperature is most consistent. You can bake in the top and bottom thirds, but you will have to rotate the items from top to bottom and turn the pans 180 degrees to ensure even baking.

  Hot spots in the oven result in uneven cooking. You can’t really do anything about that, but if you notice that you need some extra protection, try placing all your pans on baking sheets before you put them in the oven. The baking sheet will actually help insulate the pans and help bake things more evenly. If it seems that your oven cooks your food unevenly, give the food a half-turn halfway through the baking time, so what was in the back is now in the front and what was on the left is now on the right.

  If you need to adjust the racks in your oven, do so while the oven is cool. Racks usually don’t just slide in and out easily, because most are designed to pull out and still support the weight of the baked good on it without tipping forward. So there is usually some sort of up-and-over motion you have to finesse when removing the racks from each level. You certainly don’t want to be trying to manipulate tricky racks when they’re hot.

  I recommend using only one rack, the center rack, when you bake. However, if you want to use two racks, position the racks as close to the center of the oven as possible (usually that means one rack will be in the center and one rack will be positioned directly below). Don’t place the pans one on top of the other, but position them off-center so that air can circulate around both pans (see Figure 4-1). Halfway through baking, rotate the top and bottom pans and turn them back to front so that they will bake most evenly. You many notice with two pans in the oven at once that you’ll need to increase the baking time. Of course, if you have a convection oven, you won’t need to rotate the pans or worry about rack placement since every inch of the oven is the exact same temperature.

  Figure 4-1: Staggering pans for even baking.

  Preheating

  You’ll notice that almost all recipes say to preheat the oven. You may think that this step is frivolous, but it’s actually very important.

  A preheated oven allows the ingredients to react properly, ensuring a good finished product. If you place anything to bake in a cold oven, the ingredients will react much differently with each other and the results are most undesirable. Preheated ovens contribute a lot to your finished product:

  They give breads their final growth spurt.

  They give soufflés a good push up.

  They give cakes a good rise.

  They keep cookies from spreading all over the pan.

  Properly preheating an oven takes about 15 to 20 minutes, so turn your oven on when you begin your recipe, and it will have reached the proper temperature by the time you’re ready to put your items in the oven.

  Gauging and Adjusting the Heat

  If you’ve been baking and the results are not what you expected, it may not be the recipes, but the temperature of your oven. Don’t trust the oven dial with which you set the temperature. Even ovens that may have been tried and true for many years may suddenly become uncalibrated and, without warning, increase their temperature by 25 to 50 degrees!

  An unsuspecting baker wouldn’t know that her oven has become uncalibrated — unless she has placed an additional auxiliary thermometer in her oven. You can find oven thermometers in any kitchen-supply store or hardware store; they should cost only a few dollars. The time and frustration an oven thermometer will save and the piece of mind it gives even a casual baker are worth every dime. Place your oven thermometer in a central location in your oven. You can hang it off the center of your oven if you like (don’t place it on the floor of the oven — it gives you an inaccurate reading). If you’re convinced you have a tricky oven, you may want to invest in two thermometers — one for the front of the oven and one for the back — to make sure that the temperature is even throughout your oven.

  No peeking: Every time you open the oven door, you lower the oven’s temperature. If you keep the door open, you can lower it by 25 to 50 degrees, so constantly checking on your items can be detrimental. Always check after the minimum baking time given. If you need to peek, turn on your oven light and look from the outside. It’s the best way to keep your oven the right temperature.<
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  Chapter 5

  Basic Techniques

  In This Chapter

  Getting your measurements just right

  Keeping your goodies from sticking to your pans

  Separating eggs

  Whipping egg whites and heavy cream into shape

  Peeling, zesting, and sectioning fruits

  Working with chocolate

  Scalding milk — it’s not cruel, really!

  Bringing out the flavor of nuts by toasting them

  When you read a recipe and it calls for scalding milk or tempering chocolate without providing further explanation, it can cause your head to spin. This chapter walks you through some basic techniques that are good to familiarize yourself with.